SPRINGVALE — Three years ago, local historian Harland Eastman was delighted when the Sanford-Springvale Historical Museum received four bound volumes of “La Justice,” the French newspaper published in Sanford during the first half of the 20th century. The volumes covered issues from 1935 and from the years 1939 through 1941.

Imagine Eastman’s surprise, then, when earlier this month he learned that the museum would receive even more volumes of the long-gone newspaper — enough, in fact, to provide the museum with a complete archive of bound issues from 1929 through 1942, as well as numerous loose copies from 1943, 1944 and 1945.

“I was very excited,” Eastman said.

The volumes originally belonged to Moses J. Barrieau, of Cape Porpoise. Barrieau’s father, of the same name, had edited the newspaper in the 1940s. Three years ago, the younger Barrieau contacted Sanford resident Gilles Auger, whose wife, Claire, is the niece of Lionel LaFrance, the longtime editor of “La Justice” who preceded Barrieau’s father at the helm. Through Auger, Barrieau had donated the four volumes to Sanford’s historical museum.

According to Eastman, Barrieau contacted him earlier this month and told him he had been cleaning out his basement and discovered several more bound volumes of the newspaper. Those volumes, damp when discovered, are now at the museum and are being dried and prepared for preservation, so that local residents can enjoy them for decades to come.

Eastman and Claire Auger flipped through old copies of “La Justice” during a recent morning at the museum. Auger, in particular, studied the front page of the issue of “La Justice” published on Thursday, May 21, 1942 — Jeudi, 21 Mai 1942. There, above the fold, with a bold headline and a few photographs, are details of the funeral at St. Ignatius Church for her uncle and aunt, Lionel and Fabiola LaFrance. Days before, the LaFrances had gone fishing late in the evening with their friend, Raphael LeClerc, at Bunganut Lake in Alfred. Lionel stood up inside their boat, it capsized, and the LaFrances and LeClerc tumbled into the water. LeClerc clung to the boat and survived. Tragically, the LaFrances, did not.

Lionel was all of 36 years old; Fabiola, 37. Both are buried in St. Ignatius Cemetery. LeClerc, who passed away in 1978, is buried in the plot next to theirs.

Sanford-Springvale had lost a generous and respected couple that had donated much of their time and talent to the community, “La Justice” reported about its own longtime editor and his wife. The LaFrances were involved with numerous local organizations and also operated the LaFrance funeral home on Winter Street.

Barrieau succeeded LaFrance as editor in June of 1942.

“La Justice” was a member of the French Language Newspaper Association, which published papers in many areas. The broadsheet cost a nickel at the store, with subscriptions going for 85 cents for six months or $1.50 for a year. Circulation numbers are not known all these years later; however, Auger and her son, Paul, a local history teacher, were able to randomly sample 16 districts in town from the 1940 census and determine that 46 percent of Sanford’s citizens were Franco-American, so the bet is that readership was high.

The newspaper had a mix of local, national and global stories on its front page. Stories about World War II, for example, could dominate above the fold, but a local blurb about a grieving widow could appear on the bottom of the page. Inside the paper, the news and features continued, and you could find little items about birthdays and anniversaries and who was away on vacation and other small-town social tidbits.

The May 24, 1945, issue has a banner headline that reads, “Churchill Demissionne.”

“ ‘Churchill Resigns’,” Auger translated.

And, as proof that the world today is not completely different from yesteryear, another front-page headline from May of 1945 says, “La Situation est grave en Syrie et au Liban.” The situation is serious in Syria and Libya.

The victorious end of World War II is declared with tremendous fanfare on the front page of another loose issue from 1945. The page was largely dedicated to national and global reaction to the historic news. Ever aware of its target audience, however, “La Justice” had a small blurb on the bottom right-hand corner of the front page that said, “Tout est calme dans le Maine.” Translated: All is calm in Maine. Evidently, as the world roiled with war for years and then celebrated a momentous victory over tyranny, the good folks of Maine kept an even keel.

Barrieau’s donation of these volumes of “La Justice” is an enormous and unexpected gift for the local historical museum and the residents and Franco-American descendants of Sanford. According to Eastman, before Barrieau emerged with those first four volumes, there were no known copies of the newspaper in existence. Earlier editions, however, are on microfiche at Folger Library up at the University of Maine in Orono, and Eastman hopes to make the trip up there some day to research the paper’s pre-1929 existence.

As for 1929 through 1945, the Sanford-Springvale Historical Museum’s all set when it comes to “La Justice.”

“I had no idea I was getting a 16-year run” of the newspaper, Eastman said last week.